Roster Moves
Dave · October 29, 2009 at 5:23 pm · Filed Under Mariners
The M’s made some procedural moves today. Bryan LaHair, Cesar Jimenez, Marwin Vega, and Randy Messenger were outrighted to Triple-A, getting them off the 40 man roster. The M’s attempted to outright Justin Thomas as well, but Pittsburgh claimed him on waivers, so he’s now property of the Pirates.
No big news here. None of these guys are major leaguers, most likely – Thomas had a chance but injuries have taken a toll on him, and his 2009 season was downright miserable. LaHair and Jimenez have been around forever and still aren’t any good.
Thanks for the update. Seems like ages ago that the M’s played their last game, and stuff has been very quiet.
Then again, they aren’t looking for a new management team this year.
That pretty much says everything you need to know about their trade value.
Just think of Thomas as the player to be named later in the Wilson/Snell trade.
Wonder who’ll go on the 40-man in their stead.
I’m dying for some hot stove…..but that’s a ways away, realistically.
For the immediate future, they need some room to reinstate guys from the 60-day disabled list, plus whoever needs to be protected from the Rule 5 draft.
Nothing interesting is going to happen until the WS is over, and possibly not for another month (the winter meetings are Dec 7-10 in Indianapolis).
One thing about having meetings in Indianapolis in early December — you’re not going to be distracted by, like, the beach or the theater district or anything.
Joser. Are you being snarky?
C’mon now, we all know Indy is tres exciting in the winter time! 🙂
I’ve got some relatives that live in the Indy area. Most of their lives. Nice people, but their idea of a wild night is putting in a scoop of real coffee in with the de-caf.
The nice thing about Indy is it’s the sort of town where you can go watch their football team cream the ‘Hawks and not get heckled. (Not that I’d know about that from personal experience or anything.) It’s a nice town, and I can’t say for certain that it doesn’t have a theater district — though it does have some nice bars downtown — but joser’s right, it’s not a high-excitement kind of place.
Me, being snarky? That’s unpossible!
And I have to say I’ve never been to Indianapolis, for meetings or any other reason. Though I figure finding myself in Indianapolis in early December would be a strong indicator something had gone wrong with my life.
Speaking of Indy: One thing I did find odd about last night’s WS game was how seemingly every Yankee fan had a kid enrolled at Indiana University, and for some reason wanted the whole world to know it. Maybe you missed it, but for most of the time Pedro was on the mound the entire crowd kept chanting “Hoosier daddy! Hoosier daddy!”
But upon further review, maybe it’s Pedro who has a “Proud father of an IU student” bumper sticker on his Benz, and the crowd was just acknowledging it.
D’oh! 🙂
Indianapolis is nice in the summer, as the AAA ballpark (which looks to me like a miniature Camden) is in easy walking distance from downtown. I was there for a conference in August once.
Might not be too bad in the winter either, as they have sky bridges connecting a number of downtown blocks and a central glass section.
I was somewhat surprised that Lahair cleared waivers. He had somewhat of a power surge this year in AAA, and some team somewhere might have taken a chance on him. Apparently, they all think he is still replacement level.
Dec. 7-10 in Indy, thanks. I’ll put that on my calendar. Realistically though, those guys won’t leave their posh downtown hotels. They will slam back round after round in the hotel bar, talking probably too openly about what’s going on and maybe trying to make a deal. And it will be all on the fans’, er, company’s expense account. So the fact that Indy ain’t Vegas won’t enter into it much.
Minus the possible FA’s the 40 man is now at thirty-one players. And looking at the minor leagues I see no player who is eligible for the rule 5 that is not already on the forty man. At least no player worth taking up the roster spot.
All this leads me to believe that JackZ is working hard on locking up some of the M’s free agents during the exclusive signing period.
And nothing of value was lost.
dont be suprised if you see the 4 AFL pitchers Hill, Fields, Aumont, and maybe even Vavaro added to the 40 man
If those pitchers don’t need to be protected, why would they be added to the 40-man roster?
Can someone explain why LaHair was on the 40-man in the first place? He performed better than expected with the bat this year in AAA. Yet he’s not a good enough fielder to win a 1B job, and not a good enough hitter to be a DH. That was true last year, it’s true this year. It will be true next year. We already have Carp. Are we keeping him in the event we don’t sign Branyan or another 1B and need a backup?
BTW, LaHair is better than Brad Nelson who was out of shape last year and was unimpressive in every dimension. So should Nelson be back?
In most cases I would agree with you. But if Z thinks the same way, I’ll be very surprised.
Actually, to borrow a line from Andy Griffith’s Ben Matlock, “I’ll betcha five dollars” LaHair winds up with either the KC Royals or DC Nationals next year.
One of the M’s top targets might be OF/3B Mark Teahen of KC. He could cover 3b if Tuiasasopo struggles, and he could cover LF if Saunders struggles. He’s a solid player who can hit, and wouldn’t cost the M’s an arm and a leg, either. KC also likes to dump salary when they can.